Duterte to Bacolod police exec Espenido: Go there and kill everybody

President Rodrigo Duterte on Thursday said that he assigned controversial police official Lieutenant Colonel Jovie Espenido to Bacolod City which the chief executive said was “badly hit” by the proliferation of illegal drugs.

Espenido recently assumed his post as deputy director for operations at the Bacolod City Police Office. He was also promoted from the rank of major to lieutenant colonel.

“Bacolod is badly hit now.  And I placed Espenido there, ‘yung kinatakutan nila na pulis. Sabi ko, ‘Go there and you are free to kill everybody.’ T— ina.  Start killing them.’ Dalawa na tayo magpapreso,” Duterte said in a speech at the 45th Philippine Business Conference and Expo in Manila.

Duterte mentioned Espenido’s name as he talked about the extent of the problem of illegal drugs, citing the number of suspected drug users and pushers who surrendered since he assumed the presidency in 2016.

Espenido was the police chief of Albuera town in Leyte when Mayor Rolando Espinosa Sr., died during a bloody police search operation at a jail facility in Baybay City, Leyte in November 2016.

The following year, he was transferred to Ozamiz City where then Mayor Reynaldo Parojinog and 15 others were killed in the series of drug raids.

Espenido then briefly served in Calbayog City before he was moved back to Ozamiz in November last year. —JST, GMA News